What are you watching?
I was starting to think they had given up on it, but AnimeYoshi finally released a new episode of Allison and Lillia. Yay! Go get it.
As of yesterday, there are two new episodes of Allison and Lillia. It isn’t really surprising that they come out so infrequently since I believe that the show has been licensed.
Cassern Sins is turning into a really good show and Skip Beat continues to be good.
The one I really want to talk about is one I heard about from one person on another board and haven’t heard about anywhere else, which I think is thus the most underrated show to come along in a long, long time. I speak of the computer which is to come after me… No wait, I speak of Michiko e Hatchin which is about a thoroughly gorgeous and delectable young woman who has promised to take care of an eight year old daughter of a deceased friend, but first she has to escape from a high security prison and abduct the girl from the tyrannical family who has adopted her and treats her like dirt. It’s a fun action/adventure show set somewhere in Latin America (Brazil perhaps?) with interesting characters and good writing, artwork and music. It reminds me of Black Lagoon in many ways. It’s currently at episode six from BSS subs and keeps getting better with each release.
Skip Beat is definitely getting better. Had some misgivings at first when watching it, but it’s holding my interest now.
I’d seen the Michiko e Hatchin posts on BSS, but for whatever reason held off on it. I don’t know, I think it was the art style or something threw me off. I’m consistently hearing how good it is though, so I think I need to give it a shot. Nodame Paris has been disappointing, so maybe this help replace that.
Tales of the Abyss is still very watchable for me, even moreso now that some of the inevitable, telegraphed plot twists have been revealed, and in the process the main character Luke has become much less of a douche-boy than before.
Kannagi continues to be great fun. I think I find it so appealing because of the show’s method of comedic timing, and how it utilizes dialogue that’s done well by the VAs involved. They cover a lot of ground that countless other shows have done in the past, but the way it’s handled in Kannagi really stands out in a good way for me.
I agree with you, Jericho, all those shows you mentioned are good ones well worth a look.
Having already seen the live action version of Nodame Paris, I don’t think that I’m in a good position to judge the anime on it’s own merits. I’m enjoying it but I’ll say that the live action was better. Abyss is good but I’d say that Luke is becoming more of a dick than a douche-boy. Kannagi’s plot is indeed nothing new but it is well done and funny. If you like that you may also want to look at Toaru Majutsu no Index and/or Toradora.
Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka is an extremely boring romantic comedy that isn’t funny and not going anywhere. Chaos Head on the other hand is intriguing as is Ga-Rei Zero after a rocky start. Kurozuka isn’t bad if you like samurai vampire stories.
Also, in case you missed it the first time around, Anime Keep and Moo-Shi subs are re-releasing a high quality version of Monster. I can’t recommend this one adamantly enough. It’s a Hitchcock-like mystery in Seventy-Four episodes (the first three re-released episodes are out so far). It’ll grab your attention in the first episode and won’t let go until the end. It reminds me of The Fugitive - a doctor on the run from a relentless cop, accused of murders he did not commit looking for the real killer. But there the similarity ends as he chases the clues across Europe and finds himself involved in a complicated plot involving Cold War experiments that powerful people don’t want exposed.
Okay, my ISP must hate me for how much downloading I’ve done today.
Skip Beat: Revenge of spurned lovers is a unique subject for animu, and except for the logical leap about sixteen-year-olds cohabitating without disaster and/or pregnancy resulting, the first episode presented it in a fun way. I grabbed the other eps and will be tracking this one.
Real Drive: While getting Skip Beat at Ureshii, I also came across this one, which sounded promising - a near-future sci-fi about an ubiquitous version of the internet. Despite wanting to stick around to see if they ever explain why a combat-ready android would need eyeglasses (or unweildily-large breasts, for that matter, but hey, anime, lol) the characters, including a pedotastic squeaky-voiced fifteen-year-old girl and the chief of a laboratory or something who gives orders while lounging on a couch in cleavage-enhancing garb, fail to convince me that another twenty-five episodes of this will be time well spent.
Monster: Drama! Tragedy! Cold War politics! Insubordination! As a person bored by the overrated House, the first episode held my attention. Let’s see if the others can.
Michiko to/e Hatchin: Got the first ep dee-elled so far, but haven’t watched it yet.
And Allision and Lillia continues to be waeome as always. Toradora is cheap pap, but it has some soul and is fun to watch if you’re in the mindset.
If you’re isp hates you, mine must be apoplectic. I downloaded twenty-eight episodes last night (actually seven of them are still in progress). I had found out that Funkymation had bullied AonE/Conclave into canceling the rest of their subs of Nabari no Ou with their “power of attorney” even though it hasn’t been licensed. So I had to go find another group doing it who hadn’t drawn their ire to get the rest of the series.
Skip Beat is just plain fun and I look forward to seeing what she will do next. Real Drive is another that I have been downloading but not watching. You’re brief review doesn’t do anything to move it up on my ‘to watch’ list either.
Monster just keeps getting better. The only flaws I can think of are that the plot gets a bit slow in a couple of spots and, as it goes on, it gets a bit difficult to keep track of all the characters. Isn’t the opening theme awesome? I have never heard a theme song so appropriate to a show. Pay attention to the closing sequence, too. Even that becomes significant.
Allison and Lillia, Toradora and Toaru Majutsu no Index are all very well done, cheap, comedy pap to me.
…mMMMmm…pap…(drools)
That’s true. And despite the sometimes silliness of the situations, Kyoko is amazingly dimensional.
Oh, and albright:
and except for the logical leap about sixteen-year-olds cohabitating without disaster and/or pregnancy resulting
The reason pregnancy never resulted is because (as will be made more clear later), Sho barely registers Kyoko as a girl. Despite Kyoko’s past view of him as her prince, he’s never so much as held her hand. I don’t doubt that Sho was having sex at that time, just not with Kyoko.
GrinfilledCelt:
Allison and Lillia, Toradora and Toaru Majutsu no Index are all very well done, cheap, comedy pap to me.
I wouldn’t call Allison and Lillia cheap… or comedy.
GrinfilledCelt:
I think that the Japanese are good at doing “girly” subjects. They don’t treat their women like empty-headed idiots over there.
I would hardly reference anime as a shining example of gender equality. Nor would I say that Japanese society respects women more than the US. This is a culture where there must clearly be something wrong with women over age thirty who are unmarried, and where infidelity by a husband is not only accepted, but expected. I think it’s more a matter of marketing; teenage girls have money to spend too.
In the spirit of Detroit Metal City, I present this twisted Japanese metal music video.
Been watching One Outs. It’s a gambling animu, but with baseball this time around. If you watched Akagi (the anime about Mahjong), you’ll be familiar with One Outs: lots of time is spent on the main character being in seemingly impossible situations that he’s put a ridiculous amount of thought into while it just seems he’s being reckless, and the situations are resolved accordingly. The guy voicing the main character is even the same guy as in Akagi, so it feels real familiar.
Didn’t like episode 10 of Kannagi too much, but I’m thinking it was because they limited it to karaoke shenanigans.
I generally try to space out the animated stuff with the live-action stuff in my Netflix queue, but somehow I ended up with three animu discs this weekend.
Howl’s Moving Castle: Miyazaki’s latest. Well done, with all the standard Miyazaki-isms, but the plot seemed incoherent at times, not helped by the fact that a major plot point is that the main character gets turned into an old lady but in the third act she’s back to being young but just with gray hair for no inexplicable reason. Good on a technical level; not up to par on the story level.
Afro Samurai: Hmm. Violent hackenslash was never really my thing. I thought this would be more of an adventure thing when I rented it. I made it through one episode and will probably see at least one more, but I don’t know if it’ll hold my interest through all five.
Genshiken: I’m not really sure what enticed me to add this to my queue - my queue is so friggin’ long - currently at ninety-five discs - that months often pass between when I queue it up and when I actually receive it, so opening up that red envelope and going “what the heck?” is actually somewhat of a common occurrence. But I started watching it anyway, and I like it. It’s a sort of slow-paced comedy about a college anime/manga/video game club and the freaks and geeks in attendance. One new freshman recruit has something of a girlfriend, and watching her do battle with his nerdly inclinations and losing is kind of painfully funny in a way - at the end of the second episode, they’ve just kissed and she’s clinging to his arm, but then he tells her he wants to go to Akihabara to wait in line to buy some voice actress’s new CD. The camera pans back to show her standing alone outside the train station, arm frozen in a wave goodbye. Ouch.
Albright:
I generally try to space out the animated stuff with the live-action stuff in my Netflix queue, but somehow I ended up with three animu discs this weekend.
Heh. When I had netflix I pretty much only got live action stuff… since I already watch too much anime.
Genshiken: I’m not really sure what enticed me to add this to my queue - my queue is so friggin’ long - currently at ninety-five discs - that months often pass between when I queue it up and when I actually receive it, so opening up that red envelope and going “what the heck?” is actually somewhat of a common occurrence. But I started watching it anyway, and I like it. It’s a sort of slow-paced comedy about a college anime/manga/video game club and the freaks and geeks in attendance. One new freshman recruit has something of a girlfriend, and watching her do battle with his nerdly inclinations and losing is kind of painfully funny in a way - at the end of the second episode, they’ve just kissed and she’s clinging to his arm, but then he tells her he wants to go to Akihabara to wait in line to buy some voice actress’s new CD. The camera pans back to show her standing alone outside the train station, arm frozen in a wave goodbye. Ouch.
Haha, Genshinken was awesome. I have to remember to finish buying the manga. :/
Let’s see… I’m watching: (in about the order I look foward to them each week)
Chaos;Head - “Takumi is a high school student. He is withdrawn and is not interested in 3D things. In his town, a mysterious serial murder case happens and people get panicked. One day, when he chats on the internet, a man suddenly contacts him and gives him an URL. He goes to the website and finds a blog image that suggests a next murder case…. On the next day, it really happens…. Takumi Nishijō suffers from intense delusions as a result of his apparent schizophrenia and the extremely secluded lifestyle he lives as a hikkikomori. One day he accidentally stumbles upon a gruesome murder scene, a part of a chain of events called “New Generation.” After this, his life gets caught up in these events, and he meets a bunch of increasingly insane anime girls with swords.” [ANN]
This show is… unique. It’s essentially about a guy with no life who stays inside all day playing MMORPGs, watching anime, and having hallucinations that a girl from an anime is real and talks to him/does stuff with him. Then he meets girls who can hallucinate stuff into existence. Then he finds out that he can do the same, but to a much greater degree. While all this is happening other crazy things are going on. The opening/ending are well done, and while the animation doesn’t look like anything special, it’s usually clean and crisp.
Kannagi - “An art student named Jin Mikuriya carves a statue from the wood of the Kannagi tree only to have the statue come to life in the form of a goddess, who has now taken over the statue. He and “Nagi” work together to destroy the impurities that are gathering in the town.” [ANN]
IMO, the main thing this show has going for it so far is that it’s directed by the guy who got fired after directing four episodes of Lucky Star. He also happens to be the one who directed and did the storyboards for the dancing in the opening to Lucky Star and ending to Haruhi. So we get a dancing opening, jokes concering him getting fired, and parodies of Lucky Star and Haruhi, as well as other shows.
Gundam 00 S2 - Gundam. Not much to say.
Toradora! - Pretty much another school romance comedy, with the twist that while the main guy and girl’s classmates think they like each other, they’re actually both trying to hook up with the other’s friend.
Clannad After Story - Sequel to Clannad. In this he graduates high school, and it’s probably going to cover a few years after that. It’s already started to get depressing, and will probably just become more so.
Kemeko DX - “A chibi robot doll appears in the room of a typical high school boy. The robot claims the boy as her husband and then a beautiful girl comes out of the doll’s mouth who knows the boy from 10 years prior and had been promised his hand in marriage.” [ANN]
It’s pretty much just a slapstick, somewhat harem-ish comedy. I originally started watching this because I thought someone had said it was the “parody anime of the season,”… but maybe they had actually been talking about Kannagi?
Bounen no Xamdou - “Enter Sentan, a lush, tranquil island encased in war between the military and those with Hiruko, known as X’amd. On one of these warlike days, Akiyuki Takehara heads off to school and gets caught in a raid by the creatures. Through a series of events he is transformed into a X’amd, and with the help of a Tessikan woman Nakiami along with his highschool friend Haru, Akiyuki is forced to learn to live with the Hiruko or faces the danger of losing his self-control and turn to stone.” [ANN]
…not sure what to say about this. Some people say the art and pacing is sorta Miyazaki-esque, and I guess I somewhat agree with that.
Albright:
oung but just with gray hair for no inexplicable reason. Good on a technical level; not up to par on the story level.Afro Samurai: Hmm. Violent hackenslash was never really my thing. I thought this would be more of an adventure thing when I rented it. I made it through one episode and will probably see at least one more, but I don’t know if it’ll hold my interest through all five.
You have to give it until Ep. 3. The first episode is just a bunch of blood and guts to get people in to the series. The story starts on Ep2 and there is quite a bit of adventure to it.
You were right, even though your quoting is screwed up; the series got better in its middle episodes. Then the final episode comes and totally lames things out. Interesting that its middle episodes would be the best; usually the first few and last few are the most interesting. Just look at Outlaw Star; if you watched the first three episodes and the last three episodes and ignored the twenty telepathic cacti episodes in between, it was a great series.
(I’m never going to let Outlaw Star, or its fans, forget that stupid telepathic cactus episode.)
Anyway, speaking of Powerpuff Girls Z, I was reminded of it a while back and found a few fansubs online. They took forever to download, but they finally did, and I just watched the first ep. Let me tell you, it was different. Not just in the look, of course, but the episode pacing and progression, the humor, the characters’ attitudes for the most part… they even added a few new characters for no apparent reason (Professor Utonium now has a son and a talking robotic dog). It was bizarre. It was as if some weird foreign country took the mere general idea of Powerpuff Girls and made their own low-budget version of it, adapting it to their own freaky cultural norms.
…oh, wait, lol
I just caught up on one I haven’t heard anyone else talking about - and they should be. It’s called Hidamari Sketch with five episodes out from Spoons fansubs so far. It is about four girls who are art majors attending the same school and living in the same apartment building. It’s cute, funny and I haven’t seen a single panty shot - a relief from all the fan service that seems to be so prevalent this season. It’s also based on a four-panel comic strip so it has a lot of similarities to Azumanga Daioh.
I’ll check it out.
Really? I’m looking at the seven fansubbers I’m tracking in my RSS reader now and wondering… well, first wondering how/why on earth I’m tracking so many fansubbed series now, but after that I’m wondering why they’re not releasing more often. Oh well; I recently bought Avatar Book 1 on DVD, and the rest will soon follow, so that’ll keep me busy for a while. And then, there’s always Netflix.
Have you all taken my advice and seen Avatar yet, by the way? If not, “suck” is not an adequate word to describe what you do.
No, I haven’t seen more than a few episodes of Avatar yet. You have managed to convince me that it is worth a closer look, AB, and eventually I will get a round tuit so you can lighten up now. Okay? =0D
Btw, what did you think of the end of Allison and Lillia, AB? Looks to me like they left themselves open for another season.
I watched a Chinese martial arts movie called Ip Man today. Very good! He’s the epitome of class and honor. It begins sometime in the twenties or thirties and runs up into the Japanese occupation during WWII when he finds out how useless a martial arts master really is. The fight scenes were almost believable with hardly any flying. =0D It’s beautifully photographed and I wouldn’t mind having the OST either.
I got it from a torrent at MiniNova with separate subtitles.
I’ll have to look into that when I get back to my apartment and have some decent internet speed going.
Kannagi’s done, and I’m kind of sad because the series has been a hell of a lot better than a lot of the other crap being churned out recently that get 24-26 episodes. Then again, I suppose that’s due to the massive filler and paint-by-numbers episodes, so if a show like Kannagi only gets 13 episodes to help avoid that I guess I’ll just have to live with it. Ending could have been better, but I guess they had to end it on a goofy note to break up the srsbiz atmosphere that the past two episodes had heaped on the series.
GrinfilledCelt:
Btw, what did you think of the end of Allison and Lillia, AB? Looks to me like they left themselves open for another season.
They didn’t connect all the dots, no, but nearly enough that I’d be satisfied if there were no more episodes. It really was a great series and I hope someone licenses it and gives it the TLC it deserves.
If we’re talking foreign live-action movies, I recently saw Kamikaze Girls, an “unlikely friendship” comedy about a rough biker chick and a frilly lolita-style girl who wishes she lived in nineteenth-century France. It was genuinely funny. Then earlier tonight I saw The Taste of Tea, a somewhat surreal slice-of-life movie about a family going about their slightly unusual daily lives; Mom’s an animator, Dad’s a hypnotist, Son’s lovestruck, Daughter keeps seeing a giant version of herself watching over her, Uncle makes a bizarre new friend, and just what is Grandpa up to in his room? It sounds boring, but it was actually very enjoyable even throughout its two-and-a-half hour runtime. I immediately went back to Netflix’s site and queued everything else by that director that I could find.
I’ll be looking for that, AB. Thanks for the tip.
I’ve decided that I somehow must find a copy of Yes, Minister. Today when I was showing someone the video on polling and ran across this one. It neatly explains why we suddenly had to spend one third of out GNP so a bunch of assholes can play Santa Claus (bail outs) - “Something must be done. This is something. Therefore we must do it!” I was just beginning to pay attention to politics when that show was airing on PBS. I remember thinking that you could learn a lot about politics from it and get some good laughs while doing so.
Albright:
If we’re talking foreign live-action movies, I recently saw Kamikaze Girls, an “unlikely friendship” comedy about a rough biker chick and a frilly lolita-style girl who wishes she lived in nineteenth-century France. It was genuinely funny.
Kamikaze Girls is awesome. It didn’t sound like the kind of movie I would normally watch, but I accidentally caught the start of it at a media convention about a year ago… and ended up sticking around for the whole thing.
Then earlier tonight I saw The Taste of Tea, a somewhat surreal slice-of-life movie about a family going about their slightly unusual daily lives; Mom’s an animator, Dad’s a hypnotist, Son’s lovestruck, Daughter keeps seeing a giant version of herself watching over her, Uncle makes a bizarre new friend, and just what is Grandpa up to in his room? It sounds boring, but it was actually very enjoyable even throughout its two-and-a-half hour runtime. I immediately went back to Netflix’s site and queued everything else by that director that I could find.
I haven’t seen Taste of Tea yet, but I really loved “Funky Forest” by the same director. It was certainly surreal, and the source of this unmotivational poster.
GrinfilledCelt:
Hidamari Sketch
Okay, get out of here with this moe crap. Like Azumanga Daioh my bright red rosy; Azumanga was funny and had characters with personalities and eyes that didn’t take up a third of their face each. You fail for this recommendation, GFC.
Also, your avatar is annoying and your mother eats hamster deets.
I’ve decided to do another update even though after that last post you don’t deserve it. Lately there has been another smattering of new shows starting up. I’ve been downloading a lot of them but haven’t watched too many yet. Overall they look more promising than the crop from earlier this season.
First there’s Akikan. Remember that recent one where the guy carves a statue from the wood of a sacred tree which comes to life and moves in with him? This one is just like it except that the maiden in this one is not a local guardian spirit but a melon soda can. This one is funnier though. He just got out of the shower and is walking around his apartment with just a towel draped across his shoulder. He grabs a soda, pops it open and takes a swig. poof! He is suddenly kissing a beautiful girl who, when she realizes that he is naked, decks him. He then comes to the logical conclusion that he must be dreaming and decides to make love to her and she decks him again.
Shikabane Hime Another demon fighter series.
Chrome Shelled Regios A planet infested with giant bugs and those who fight them. Reminiscent of Blue Gender.
Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou A modern day Shinto tale about a guy who has a cat which is actually a dragon spirit. I rather like this one, but then, I would.
Asu no Yoichi A comedy about a samurai boy raised in the mountains in isolation by his father who comes to the city to learn more about the world. He is staying at an allied family’s dojo which consists of three young girls (of course).
Minami-ke Okaeri another slice-of-life comedy about friendships amongst high school girls.
Maria+Holic A girl on her first day at an exclusive private school is hoping to find her one true love just like her parents did except that she is looking for another girl. She finds one who is everything she had hoped for who turns out to be a boy in disguise that blackmails her into silence and arranges for them to be roommates. I should also say that this is supposed to be a comedy.
Kiss x Sis a guy’s two sisters have a romantic crush on him. Mom and Dad don’t care because they are from previous marriages and thus are not blood relatives. He wants no part of it because even though there is no blood between them he grew up with them from an early age and they are essentially his sisters. Weird.
All of these are at one or two episodes and I mostly don’t want to judge any of them yet.
I’m sorry for bringing this up at this late date but it’s been bothering me and it’s beginning to fester so I have to get it off of my chest. It concerns Albright’s last post above. Even though I suspect that whole post may have been intended as a joke, there really wasn’t anything there to indicate that it was. So…
What? Are you channeling CT? First you demonstrate an inability/unwillingness to read what I typed and then criticize me for what you imagine that I did. You throw out an argument 100% free of logic by deriding me for recommending “moe crap” and in the same breath waxing poetic about the virtues of Azumanga Daioh. Then you top it all off with the typical liberal tactic of making any disagreement into a vitriolic personal attack.
Upon review, I still stand by my recommendation of Hidamari Sketch as a charming and interesting show. =0P
Thanks, I feel much better now. =0D
